“Russia has not invaded Ukraine,” and other great moments in Russian propaganda

posted at 8:01 pm on April 16, 2014 by Erika Johnsen

Oh, you know, just a casual ‘Russia actually hasn’t invaded Ukraine, because that’s really just misinformation peddled by the fascists within the illegal government in Kiev,’ and whatever. The usual. Via the WFB:

And so began another day of bluster and hyperbole, of the misinformation, exaggerations, conspiracy theories, overheated rhetoric and, occasionally, outright lies about the political crisis in Ukraine that have emanated from the highest echelons of the Kremlin and reverberated on state-controlled Russian television, hour after hour, day after day, week after week.

It is an extraordinary propaganda campaign that political analysts say reflects a new brazenness on the part of Russian officials. And in recent days, it has largely succeeded — at least for Russia’s domestic audience — in painting a picture of chaos and danger in eastern Ukraine, although it was pro-Russian forces themselves who created it by seizing public buildings and setting up roadblocks.

In essence, Moscow’s state-controlled news media outlets are loudly and incessantly calling on Ukraine and the international community to calm a situation that Ukraine, the United States and the European Union say the Kremlin is doing its best to destabilize.

And then, of course, there’s your standard fallback, ‘capitalism is really just fascism and America is really a lot like Auschwitz,’ that old chestnut.

Oh, yeah, all of those profits and value added and jobs created via free enterprise — it really just leaves behind such a troubling pattern of “scorched earth,” you know?

O & The Peaceniks are to Blame for Ukraine
Toppling Kadafi in Libya was not in our interests. Kadafi was cooperating with us, and now instead we got a horde of muslim radicals that have swarmed over the place. Same with Clinton’s invasion of Serbia and Bosnia. Did not help us. But when we casually use our military force, often against our own interests, and more importantly, the Libya invasion was done against the explicit wishes of Russia, and I said this will come back to bite us (to roost), because now Russia has greater justification for its own military conquests, by pointing to our frequent military misadventures. It’s insane that the libs and peaceniks for some reason were all for the invasion of Libya, but that invasion (or “kineticc military action” of 6 months of around the clock bombing) has made the world a much more dangerous place, as the Ukraine invasion could partially be the result of that. Thanks Peaceniks, thanks for nothing.

I know this much for certain – Russia has not invaded Ukraine to anything remotely the degree that Mexico has invaded America, so if we are going to go to war over an invasion, I would much prefer that it be with Mexico, the country that has invaded us, not with Russia, a country that has not invaded us in the slightest. And I don’t care how much that mentally deranged babbling Royalist Clown, Jeb Bush, prattles inanely on about “It’s only love”.

You forgot to thank the neocons (or whatever else one wants to call them) as they deserve much more of the credit. Just on Libya alone, this is where McCain and Rubio were pushing Obama to do even more and faster.

April 15, 2014
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Yulia Tymoshenko has called on Ukrainians to come together to defend the country against what she describes as a “war” launched by Russia aimed at seizing Ukrainian territory.

The former prime minister and candidate for next month’s snap Ukrainian presidential elections spoke with RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service in Kyiv on April 15.

“What is taking place today in Ukraine’s east and south is not just an aggression, not just a terrorist act by Russia against those regions of Ukraine,” she said. “I am sure that it has to be defined by a proper word: a war, which has been launched by the Russian Federation against Ukraine, and which has a goal to actually seize Ukraine’s territory.”

Tymoshenko called on authorities to “immediately announce a state of emergency” in Ukraine’s eastern regions, where pro-Moscow protesters have seized government buildings and security headquarters in around 10 towns and cities.

“In the nearest hours, we will recommend the appointment of the commanders of those territorial brigades of defense, who will be mobilizing people,” she said.

She also said it was necessary to start a broad dialogue with the “elites” of the eastern region — even if, she said, they are being “paid” by the Russian military and security agencies to stir up separatist sentiment and seize territory.

Russia sent forces into Ukraine’s Crimea and annexed that territory in March.

Moscow has denied Ukrainian and Western allegations that Russia has also sent operatives into Ukraine’s mostly Russia-speaking east to prepare for a possible military intervention.

Tymoshenko acknowledged the challenges faced by Ukraine’s army, police, and special services, saying they have been left in “an extremely weak” and “demoralized” condition after years of mismanagement during the past two decades of Ukraine’s post-Soviet economic decline.

Tymoshenko added that the crisis should not force the postponement of the May 25 presidential election.

Tymoshenko was convicted of abuse of power and sentenced to seven years in prison during the government of ousted President Viktor Yanukovych, who defeated Tymoshenko in the 2010 presidential election runoff. Tymoshenko’s supporters said the prosecution was politically motivated.

Tymoshenko was freed in February under legislation passed by parliament as Yanukovych’s pro-Russian government collapsed under the pressure of mass protests and clashes between demonstrators and security forces.

When she was prime minister, until spring 2010, Tymoshenko had a working relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

But as mass demonstrations against Yanukovych’s regime gained momentum last year, she intensified her calls for Ukraine to pursue a pro-Western course and integrate with the European Union.

In a recording of a private telephone call that was leaked in March, Tymoshenko was heard using coarse language to refer to Russians and saying all Russians on Ukrainian territory should be killed with an atomic weapon.

Tymoshenko acknowledged on Twitter that the phone call was real, but said the content was edited to make her words appear virulently anti-Russian.

Tymoshenko and billionaire businessman Petro Poroshenko are regarded as the frontrunners for the May 25 presidential election.

Those guys are all now working at the American born Church of Global Warming. It was a natural transition and the pay is much better.

VorDaj on April 16, 2014 at 8:40 PM

Who knew the government of the Brave New World would be nothing but an international mafia? I always expected shriveled, sterile technocrats frozen from the inside out. Some of my co-religionists still expect some guy with red eyes who levitates, but I always thought that was wishful thinking. –But no. Just thugs. Thugs in ten-thousand dollar suits, drinking thousand dollar champagne, slapping hookers, getting coked up and rolling around on stolen money and occasionally killing someone to show how manly they are.

A pile of people clump together, people preaching weird new religions and proselytizing for weird new gods — the gods of true reason and true compassion and true religion — and these guys nod, give speeches, climb over those useful idiots and into their castles. Thugs at the top, Progressive priests underneath them.

U.N. report on Ukraine finds that attacks on ethnic Russians are not systematic or widespread, as Russia alleged: http://apne.ws/1hWu9p3
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UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Western countries on the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday slammed what they called Russia’s “fantasy narrative” on the crisis in Ukraine after a new report on the human rights situation there.

Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights Ivan Simonovic warned the council that the violence in eastern Ukraine risks “seriously destabilizing the country as a whole.”

The meeting came a day before the top diplomats of Ukraine, Russia, the United States and the European Union hold high-level talks in Geneva on an increasingly chaotic situation in which pro-Russian insurgents have seized police stations and government buildings in at least nine cities in the region. Russia has 40,000 troops massed on its border with Ukraine.

Western countries on the Security Council said the new report undermines Russia’s claims about the events that led to its recent annexation of Crimea, and they warned of a similar situation unfolding now.

“A new fantasy narrative,” British Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant called Russia’s stance on the latest phase of the crisis.

“Virtual reality,” French Ambassador Gerard Araud said.

“A well-orchestrated professional campaign of incitement,” U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power said.

Ultimately, the council is powerless to take action on Ukraine, as permanent member Russia holds veto power.

Russia’s U.N. ambassador, Vitaly Churkin, called the human rights report “biased.” He emerged from the meeting declaring in Russian, “Eleventh! Eleventh!” That’s how many times the council has met on the crisis.

The human rights report, based on the findings of visits to Ukraine by Simonovic and by a U.N. monitoring mission there, declares the arming of protesters in eastern Ukraine must end and encourages “an inclusive, sustained and meaningful national dialogue.”

The report also takes aim at Russian claims that the large ethnic Russian minority in the region has been under attack there.

“Although there were some attacks against the ethnic Russian community, these were neither systematic nor widespread,” it says. It adds that the mood remains “particularly tense,” with fears by ethnic Russians that the country’s new government doesn’t represent them.

Ukraine’s new leaders have struggled since taking power after protesters wanting closers to ties with the European Union instead of Russia forced President Viktor Yanukovych to flee.

Ukraine’s U.N. Ambassador Yuriy Sergeyev told the council Wednesday that his country is determined to hold elections on May 25 “under all circumstances.” What his country needs to break from the corruption and other bad ways of the past, he said, “is that Russia leaves us in peace.”

The new report warns Ukraine’s new government against “the advocacy of national, racial or religious hatred by some political parties, group and individuals.” In his comments Wednesday, Simonovic singled out the largely marginal hardcore nationalist Right Sector movement.

Looking back at Russia’s rapid annexation on the largely Russian-speaking Crimea just weeks ago, Simonovic said “the presence of paramilitary and so-called self-defense groups, as well as soldiers in uniform without insignia, was not conducive to an environment in which voters could freely exercise their right to hold opinions.”

He also criticized the “media manipulation” that helped create a ‘climate of fear and insecurity in the period preceding the referendum.”

A second human rights report on the Ukraine crisis is set to come out May 15.

Just a reminder: all this starts with a fascist coup in Ukraine, backed by the EU and America, that removed the elected government, and imposed even more corrupt oligarchs who totally hate Russians and Russian-speakers.

The Russian-speaking Eastern Ukrainians who’ve been deprived of their democratic rights don’t like it. Who could have expected that?

– Protesters Storm Kharkiv Theater Thinking It Was City Hall: Pro-Russian demonstrators in eastern Ukraine mistook a theater for the city hall and stormed the wrong building, a local journalist said, citing the case as evidence that the protesters were not local. Protesters who took over Kharkiv City Hall over the weekend first broke into the town’s opera and ballet theater, but left upon finding a concert hall inside, journalist Vyacheslav Mavrichev said on his Facebook page. Ukraine’s Interior Minister Arsen Avakov has accused the Kremlin of orchestrating “separatist unrest” in Kharkiv and eastern cities Donetsk and Lugansk, while officials say that many pro-Russia protesters in east Ukraine may in fact be Russian. On Monday, White House spokesman Jay Carney said there was “strong evidence” to suggest some of these demonstrators were paid and were not local residents.” Former Ukrainian prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko said protesters she saw in Donetsk had a military bearing and “did not look like residents” of the town, Ukraine’s Segodnya.ua reported. The administration building in Kharkiv had been cleared of “separatist” protesters who seized it over the weekend, Avakov said Monday. (Source: The Moscow Times, Apr. 08 2014).

– Protesters Storm Kharkiv Theater Thinking It Was City Hall: Pro-Russian demonstrators in eastern Ukraine mistook a theater for the city hall and stormed the wrong building, a local journalist said, citing the case as evidence that the protesters were not local. Protesters who took over Kharkiv City Hall over the weekend first broke into the town’s opera and ballet theater, but left upon finding a concert hall inside, journalist Vyacheslav Mavrichev said on his Facebook page. Ukraine’s Interior Minister Arsen Avakov has accused the Kremlin of orchestrating “separatist unrest” in Kharkiv and eastern cities Donetsk and Lugansk, while officials say that many pro-Russia protesters in east Ukraine may in fact be Russian. On Monday, White House spokesman Jay Carney said there was “strong evidence” to suggest some of these demonstrators were paid and were not local residents.” Former Ukrainian prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko said protesters she saw in Donetsk had a military bearing and “did not look like residents” of the town, Ukraine’s Segodnya.ua reported. The administration building in Kharkiv had been cleared of “separatist” protesters who seized it over the weekend, Avakov said Monday. (Source: The Moscow Times, Apr. 08 2014).